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Kirsten Dunst's 'Spider-Man' Kiss With Tobey Maguire Wasn't As Romantic As It Looked

Photo credit: Toni Anne Barson Archive - Getty Images
Photo credit: Toni Anne Barson Archive - Getty Images

Kirsten Dunst - who currently stars in critically acclaimed movie Power of the Dog, in which she plays a lonely widow in 1920s Montana, alongside longtime partner Jesse Plemons - was nominated for a 'Best Performance' accolade at this year's Golden Globes.

Since then, the 39-year-old has been announced as nominee for a Screen Actors Guild awards, too.

But prior to her recent successes, Dunst starred as Spider-Man's love interest Mary Jane Watson in the Marvel franchise. And arguably, the biggest on-screen moment of her career before this year - if we're talking things that had Twitter all aflutter - was her upside down kiss, in the pouring rain, with the Tobey Maguire, who played the film's protagonist.

The Marie Antoinette actor has now revealed, to many people's devastation, that her IRL experience of that kiss was a lot less romantic than the movie made it look.

She told W magazine: 'It looked like a great kiss.'

Photo credit: Presley Ann - Getty Images
Photo credit: Presley Ann - Getty Images

But continued to reveal the not hugely comfortable on-set conditions: 'I did not feel like it was a famous kiss because Tobey was... Water was getting up his nose because of the rain, and then he couldn't breathe in the Spider-Man suit, and then... And it just felt very late at night. I didn't think about it that way.'

Letting on that director Sam Raimi gave her a book to read about famous kisses, to help give her inspiration ahead of the moment, she said: 'So that made me realise how romantic and special Sam wanted this to be. Even though it wasn't necessarily feeling that way with Tobey hanging upside down.'

Conceding that her on-screen kiss with Maguire, who she briefly dated in 2001 while the pair filmed the first Spider-Man movie, was now a celebrated big screen event, she added: 'Well, I'm proud to be a part of that.'

The mother-of-two also spoke about her early decision to take on the role of Watson in the Spider-Man Franchise.

'I just knew that Sam [the director] was going to do something special... He set the tone for hiring really interesting actors for these Marvel movies,' she said.

Photo credit: Steve Granitz - Getty Images
Photo credit: Steve Granitz - Getty Images

Last month, Dunst opened up about her partner Plemons, who as well as starring with her in Power of the Dog, was also cast in crime TV series Fargo with her, which is when the pair met and began their romance.

'He's my favourite actor—the best I've ever worked with,' she told E News.

And in 2019, she told Porter: 'I just knew he would be in my life forever. I didn't know what capacity that would be at the time. When [Fargo] was over, I just missed him terribly. We didn't get together until a year later. We were both smart enough that we were wondering if the connection was just because we were working together. But it was real.'

Dunst, a mum to two boys, Ennis, three, and James, eight months, who she shares with Plemons, also spoke about how she handles working life with motherhood when speaking to US Weekly in the same year.

'It’s so much easier to go back to work than it is to be a stay-at-home mum,' she said.

At the time, she was was yet to have her youngest child.

However, she did admit how having a child impacted her physically, like most mums, saying: 'God, you’re just tired all the time.'

Prior to having children, in 2017 Dunst told Marie Claire UK: 'I’m at a stage in my life where I’m like, ‘I’ve been working since I was 3. It’s time to have babies and chill.'

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